Masakira Kusgibichi

Masakira Kusgibichi (13 September 1894-13 August 1945) was a Lieutenant-General of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War.

Biography
Masakira Kusgibichi was born in Gunma Prefecture, Japan in September 1894. He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1915 and from the Army War College in 1923, and he studied in the United Kingdom and the Weimar Republic of Germany. Kusgibichi was given command of the IJA 6th Infantry Division on Bougainville during the Pacific War, and he fought against the US 37th Infantry Division as it pushed north from the liberated southern parts of the island. On 24 June 1944, the 37th Infantry Division defeated him and took Torokina, forcing him to retreat to the north of the island. Kusgibichi was besieged in the north for the rest of the war, and he committed seppuku on 13 August 1945 rather than surrender to the US Army.